This Farm In Missouri Has A Dark And Evil History That Will Never Be Forgotten

As a panhandler down on your luck, the chance to have a place to work and live seems like a pretty good gig. Unfortunately for 12 men in Missouri, this opportunity turned into a deadly one at a Mooresville farm during the 80’s.

Ray Copeland, a cattle farmer in Mooresville, was known in town as being a fraud. His criminal record made it especially hard for him to sell cattle in town and make a living. Because of this, he picked up hobos off the road and had them go into town to buy the cattle for him using bad checks.

Soon, authorities picked up on this and traced the bad checks from the farmhands to Ray. Ray decided that the next time he had his farmhands buy his cattle, he would have to make them "disappear" so there would be no trace back to him.

The scam worked for a bit longer, until a former farmhand, Jack McCormick, called Crime Stoppers to report Ray. He claimed he had come across human bones while working on Ray's land and that Ray had tried to kill him before. What authorites ultimately found were the bodies of Ray's victims, all killed with a .22 Marlin rifle that was found in the Copeland home.

Though Ray was only convicted of 5 murders, many believed he had killed 12. Faye had kept records of the farmhands and 12 of them were "X"ed out. 5 of them were the bodies that were found. Faye was never found guilty of pulling the trigger, but she was still charged as an accomplice who refused to report Ray. In fact, she even made a quilt from the victims' clothes.

Ray (76) and Faye (69) became the oldest couple convicted of murder. Ray died in prison of natural causes while awaiting execution. Faye had suffered a stroke and was put into a retirement home where she died of natural causes.

Crazy to think all of this happened somewhat recently on a farm in Missouri. What do you think is the most evil crime that happened in our state?

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